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Omar Khadr deserves government apology and compensation: Editorial

The Canadian government has repeatedly failed Omar Khadr, as the Supreme Court has demonstrated. It's time it said sorry and compensated him.

Canada’s role in Omar Khadr’s Guantanamo interrogation “offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects,” the Supreme Court ruled in 2010.
(From Guantanamo's Child: Omar Khadr.)

By Star Editorial Board

Mon., March 20, 2017

In 2015, before becoming prime minister, Justin Trudeau said Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, deserved the protection of Canada’s judicial system.

Two years later, Trudeau’s government appears unwilling to compensate Khadr for the numerous times Canada withheld that protection from him.

It’s a shame, not to mention a missed opportunity.

After more than a decade of Ottawa failing its moral and legal obligations to defend Khadr’s human rights, Trudeau could help right the ship with a formal apology and financial settlement.

The Toronto-born Khadr was captured in Afghanistan at 15. Accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic, Khadr spent 13 years behind bars, most of them at Guantanamo Bay.

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Khadr has said that, while in U.S. custody, guards threatened him with rape, physically abused him and once left him hogtied until he urinated on himself.

Canadian government reports show that, while at Guantanamo Bay, Khadr was subjected to sleep deprivation and solitary confinement in an effort to make him “more amenable and willing to talk.”

More damning still, the reports show Canadian officials knew about the “enhanced interrogation techniques” but assured the public he was being treated humanely.

In three separate rulings over the past decade, the Supreme Court of Canada has determined that the Canadian government acted illegally by sharing intelligence information about Khadr with the U.S.; violated Khadr’s constitutional rights by interrogating him at Guantanamo despite knowing he had been abused; and wrongfully placed Khadr in a federal penitentiary following his transfer to the Canadian penal system.

Canada’s role in Khadr’s Guantanamo interrogation “offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects,” the Court ruled in 2010.

On Friday, Ottawa announced the settlement of a $100-million lawsuit filed by Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin, three Muslim Canadian men who were imprisoned at the height of the War on Terror based in part on Canadian intelligence, and later tortured by Syrian authorities.

“We hope that the steps taken today will support them and their families in their efforts to begin a new and hopeful chapter in their lives,” said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in a joint statement.

Khadr and his lawyers have a long-standing $20-million suit against the Canadian government in relation to his abuse at the hands of foreign authorities.

But, as the Star’s Michelle Shephard reports, federal lawyers appear to be settling in for a prolonged court battle.

Khadr’s legal case is complicated. He pled guilty in 2010 to five war crimes, but has since recanted.

Khadr now says he does not know whether he killed the U.S. medic, and only confessed to get out of Guantanamo.

He was freed on bail in 2015, and is appealing his conviction — a process that could take years.

His guilt or innocence is not the issue here, though.

What matters is that, before even being afforded a trial, Khadr was abused in detention by Canada’s closest ally, with the knowledge of Canadian officials.

These breaches of government duty occurred before Trudeau’s tenure. But Friday’s settlement proves the prime minister’s willingness to rightfully take responsibility for past administrations’ mistakes.

The Canadian government has repeatedly failed Khadr, as the Supreme Court has demonstrated.

It should stop fighting him, apologize and settle, rather than litigate, this shameful case.

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